History Main / BadLuckCharm

Opposite of GoodLuckCharm, obviously. Related to CursedItem and {{Artifact Of Death}}. For this trope in character form, see TheJinx.

* A short on the ''WesternAnimation/WhatACartoonShow'', "Awfully Lucky", has a sleazy guy trying to get an artifact known as the Paradox Pearl to a museum offering a huge reward for it. The pearl is cursed to give whoever owns it alternating extremely good and extremely bad luck. The guy ends up suffering all sorts of increasingly ludicrous calamities, and just barely living through them, trying to get the gem to the museum. By the end, he's been through enough catastrophes that he's needed literally half his body rebuilt from scratch, and he just gives up and throws the pearl away: Like its original owner warned him, "it ain't worth it".

Opposite of GoodLuckCharm, obviously. Related to {{Artifact Of Death}}. For this trope in character form, see TheJinx.

* A short on the ''WesternAnimation/WhatACartoonShow'', "Awfully Lucky", has a sleazy guy trying to get an artifact known as the Paradox Pearl to a museum offering a huge reward for it. The pearl is cursed to give whoever owns it alternating extremely good and extremely bad luck. The guy ends up suffering all sorts of increasingly ludicrous calamities, and just barely living through them, trying to get the gem to the museum.

Essentially, this is an item that is deemed unlucky, either because of its strange markings or its demonic shape or something. If you ever find yourself in the possession of one of these things, watch out. Bad Luck Charms tend to be harder to lose or be rid of than Good Luck Charms, with many of them being {{Clingy MacGuffin}}s.

Essentially, this is an item that is deemed as unlucky, either because of its strange markings or its demonic shape or something. If you ever find yourself in the possession of one of these things, watch out. Bad Luck Charms tend to be harder to lose or be rid of than Good Luck Charms, with many of them being {{Clingy MacGuffin}}s.

* The pendant that Nagi's grandfather gives Hayate in ''Manga/HayateTheCombatButler'' adds more trouble for Hayate. Knowing the old man, it was probably deliberate. First hinted in the manga when Isumi exorcises some of the bad luck off the charm.

** The title object in "The Unlucky Diamond" brings very bad luck (your chair collapses, the doorknob snaps off in your hand, rooftiles fall on you in the middle of the desert) to the holder; Iznogoud takes it from the beggar desperately trying to get rid of it, intending to present it as a gift to the caliph. Of course, it's a ClingyMacGuffin, and things only get worse.

* ''Literature/CryptOfTheSorcerer'': While exploring the Howling Caves, you come across a rat-infested corpse of a dead adventurer, whose outstretched hand is holding on a beetle-shaped ivory amulet. In a moment that borders on SchmuckBait, the book then asks if you'd like to pry the amulet from the rotting corpse's dead hands. It turns out that is an Amulet of Misfortune which drains away a huge chunk of your LuckStat -- the previous owner died a few days after unearthing the amulet.

* An episode of ''Series/{{Baywatch}}: Hawaii'' had a subplot where the lifeguards rescue a photographer dealing with a string of bad luck. As it turns out, he took a bit of volcanic rock under the erroneous belief that it would bring him good luck and he ends up having to go from beach to beach to find where he got the rock from to break his curse.

* ''VideoGame/TheWitcher2'': Melitele's Heart is an AncientArtifact that has been cursed; instead of protecting the user, it just makes them unlucky. The poor idiot who has the artifact will die unless Geralt can convince him that [[TooDumbToLive charging into a battlefield without armor and an artifact that may or may not be cursed is sure to get him kiled]]. If Geralt gives the amulet to an archwitch living a quiet life in the Khanduras, she'll offer to remove the curse or pay him for the artifact. Removing the curse grants you a regeneration amulet, invaluable between consecutive fights and attrition battles.

* ''[[ComicStrip/LittleLulu The Little Lulu Show]]'' episode, "[[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin The Curse Of The Thingamajig]]" had Lulu and Tubby find a mysterious object that they called a "Thingamajig". The Thingamajig gave them a lot of bad luck throughout the episode, until it was discovered that it was actually the hood ornament on a guy's car.
* In the ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'' episode "Phineas and Ferb Hawaiian Vacation", Candace finds a tiki charm which appears to give her bad luck, and keeps coming back when she tries to get rid of it. She interprets a local's advice to be "throw it into the volcano", but it turns out that there is a restaurant on top of the mountain, and the charm is a "your table is ready" alert device. After having bad luck throughout the episode, she refuses her free dessert simply because it was something the charm brought her. She then continues to suffer bad luck without it, [[TheChewToy just like usual]].

* ''WesternAnimation/TotalDramaPresentsTheRidonculousRace'': After Josee loses her LuckyRabbitsFoot, she finds a lava rock shaped like a trophy in Hawaii. However, after claiming the rock, she and Jacques start slipping in placements and become more accident prone. This is resolved by taking a detour in the middle of the competition to return the rock to Hawaii before finishing the leg in Zimbabwe.

* Supposedly, anyone who steals rocks from the Petrified Forest National Park is cursed with bad luck for as long as they have them, with the park receiving dozens of stolen rocks and "conscience letters" each year from parkgoers apologizing for the thefts and detailing the bad luck they've had to endured since stealing them.

* ''VideoGame/TheWitcher2'': Melitele's Heart is an ancient artifact that has been cursed; instead of protecting the user, it just makes them unlucky. The poor idiot who has the artifact will die unless Geralt can convince him that [[TooDumbToLive charging into a battlefield without armor and an artifact that may or may not be cursed is sure to get him kiled]]. If Geralt gives the amulet to an archwitch living a quiet life in the Khanduras, she'll offer to remove the curse or pay him for the artifact. Removing the curse grants you a regeneration amulet, invaluable between consecutive fights and attrition battles.

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* ''Literature/CryptOfTheSorcerer'': While exploring the Howling Caves, you come across a rat-infested corpse of a dead adventurer, whose outstretched hand is holding on a beetle-shaped ivory amulet. In a moment that borders on SchmuckBait, the book then asks if you'd like to pry the amulet from the rotting corpse's dead hands. It turns out that is an Amulet of Misfortune which drains away a huge chunk of your LuckStat - the previous owner died a few days after unearthing the amulet.

* The cursed emerald from the ''WesternAnimation/JackieChanAdventures'' St. Patrick's Day episode. When Jade gets it, she has two potentially fatal accidents in about a minute. When Jackie takes it off her, he immediately gets a phone call telling him he's bankrupt. They have to return it to its proper resting place in Ireland to break the curse - and just to make things more complicated, the curse only passes from person to person if the emerald is exchanged "willingly".

* ''WesternAnimation/EdEddNEddy'': "[[Recap/EdEddNEddyS4E16SorryWrongEd Sorry Wrong Ed ]]" involves a mysterious unconnected phone that somehow rung. Eddy got his hands on it after Rolf discarded it and immediately got bad luck.

* ''WesternAnimation/EdEddNEddy'': One episode involved a mysterious unconnected phone that somehow rung. Eddy got his hands on it after Rolf discarded it and immediately got bad luck.

* Myth/KingArthur: Sir Balyn removes a sword from a lady's scabbard. This sword ends up causing all kinds of horrible things to happen, eventually causing Balyn to [[spoiler:kill his brother Balan in battle]].

* ''Literature/CryptOfTheSorceror'': While exploring the Howling Caves, you come across a rat-infested corpse of a dead adventurer, whose outstretched hand is holding on a beetle-shaped ivory amulet. In a moment that borders on SchmuckBait, the book then asks if you'd like to pry the amulet from the rotting corpse's dead hands. It turns out that is an Amulet of Misfortune which drains away a huge chunk of your LuckStat - the previous owner died a few days after unearthing the amulet.

* In "Hawaiian UFO Aliens" by Mel Gilden, the aliens are searching for a part stolen from their ship. The part causes local changes in probability, leading to bad luck and much weirdness in it's vicinity.

* A short on the ''WesternAnimation/WhatACartoonShow'', "Awfully Lucky", has a sleazy guy trying to get an artifact known as the Pardox Pearl to a museum offering a huge reward for it. The pearl is cursed to give whoever owns it alternating extremely good and extremely bad luck. The guy ends up suffering all sorts of increasingly ludicrous calamities, and just barely living through them, trying to get the gem to the museum.

* The ''WesternAnimation/LiloAndStitchTheSeries'' episode "Shoe" featured Experiment 113 a.k.a. "[[MeaningfulName Shoe]]", who was essentially a living bad luck charm. Subverted later on that Shoe's bad luck could be switched over to good luck by simply lifting up the horseshoe-shaped projection on his head.

* ''DishonoredRoleplayingGame'': The Splintered Bone effect found on some corrupt bonecharms causes the bonecharm to twist its wearer's fate as a form of revenge for its poor craftsmanship, making complications more likely.

* On ''[[WesternAnimation/TotalDrama Total Drama Island]]'', Beth once takes a voodoo idol from Bony Island despite Chris's warning that doing so will curse the perpetrator, and after the Screaming Gophers lose the challenge it causes them to lose the two after it as well. Beth returns it and the Gophers win the next challenge, but it returns as part of a challenge in a later episode.

* The ''Anime/LupinIIIRedJacket'' episode "[[Recap/LupinIIIS2E107 A Wedding Ring is an Accursed Trap]]" has Lupin steal the notoriously cursed Hope Diamond to give to Fujiko as an engagement ring. Among the misadventures afterward: Lupin's car is completely destroyed, Fujiko becomes an old crone, and Zenigata suddenly becomes a much better shot when firing at Lupin's gang.

* ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'' has Qrow Branwen as a living example. In a world where Aura gives people Semblances, powers to assist in combat, his Semblance brings misfortune to anyone and everything around him. It is mostly random, though he can choose to amplify it in battle to harm his enemies. Qrow describes his Semblance as a curse and thus tends to avoid getting close to people for fear of them getting hurt.